February 2016 - Of Life and Lacquer

Month: February 2016

Of Life and Lacquer > 2016 > February

OPI New Orleans Collection

Posted on 29 February, 201628 February, 2016 by Cynthia

So how about them Oscars, eh? There were parts that felt super awkward but overall I enjoyed the show. I have always enjoyed watching them so I always look forward to the glitz and glamour. This weekend seemed to just fly by, and I had about a million things to get done: guess how many of those chores I actually got done. Regardless, I at least got some swatching done and have plenty of content for the coming week. Today I have my swatches of the OPI New Orleans Collection to share with you. I know a lot of people have complained that this color palette is not representative of such a vibrant and rich city. Let me show you my swatches and then I will let you know what I think of the collection.

OPI Take A Right On Bourbon

OPI Suzi Nails New Orleans

OPI Spare Me A French Quarter

OPI Show Us Your Tips!

OPI She’s A Bad Muffuletta!

OPI Rich Girls and Po-Boys

OPI Let Me Bayou A Drink

OPI I’m Sooo Swamped!

OPI I Manicure For Beads

OPI Humidi-tea

OPI Got Myself Into A Jam-balaya

OPI Crawfishin’ For A Compliment

Let me just get one thing out of the way: WHY? WHY??? Why do we continue to get shades like Take A Right On Bourbon in every single collection? I can’t stand shimmery silver metallics and there seems to be at least one of them in every single OPI collection for the last…5 million years. Yes, I feel strongly about this. Anyway, moving on… I have to say that I love, love, love the shades in this collection. While they may not be faithfully representative of such a rich city, they are gorgeous colors on their own. The formula on all of these was rather spot on, and I can’t think of any shades that I found particularly hard to work with. Overall, this is a beautiful collection that any creme lover will approve of. There are some stand-outs like Show Us Your Tips!, but they are all great. Now I want to hear what you think! Have you picked up any of these shades? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Stamping Saturdays – Metallic Flowers

Posted on 27 February, 2016 by Cynthia

Hey, happy Saturday and welcome to another installment of Stamping Saturdays! This morning I woke up a little early, but I spent my time catching up on TV shows on Hulu. I am really obsessed with the new show 11.22.1963 which is an original show on Hulu with James Franco. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you have to…NAOW! Last night when I got home, I decided that I’d come up with something for Stamping Saturdays, and I was inspired by Frosso’s rose mani. I started off with this gorgeous base color.

I cannot get enough of shades like OPI Infinite Shine You Sustain Me (press sample). Not only do I love this type of color on my nails, but it’s my favorite lip color too. I live for chocolately pink mauve shades which is why I was dying to get my hands on Jeffree Star Adrogyny. Unfortunately, I missed out on it and I’m over it now. Ain’t nobody got time for restock drama.

I then used a flowery design from a Cheeky Plate with Essie Nothing Else Metals. I think this turned out really cute!

Well, I hope you are all doing well. Don’t forget to join the link up below to share your stamped manis. You can also join our facebook group here. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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Love, Angeline Haughty Taughty

Posted on 15 February, 2016 by Cynthia

Hey there! If you’re lucky enough to have the day off for President’s Day, I hope you’re enjoying your long weekend. I’ve had a pretty nice weekend because I’ve been super lazy at home and haven’t done much. However, this means that today I have tons of errands to run and now I’m mad at myself for not getting everything done yesterday so I could just relax today. Before I forget…OMG…did you watch The Walking Dead last night? I am dying! I won’t reveal any spoilers because I don’t want anyone hating me for it, but you will not be disappointed! For today’s mani, I am sharing with you a beautiful polish that was given to me by Amanda for Christmas. All of my girls know what an indie newb I am, so they always send me the most gorgeous indies to suck into the dark side. I really, really want to feature more indies on my blog because I’ve always been so loyal to mainstream brands only because cremes are my #1 favorite finishes and mainstream brands do those so well. Anywho, today I’m going to show you Love, Angeline Haughty Taughty.

In the bottle, Love, Angeline Haughty Taughty does not look that interesting but boy did I change my mind one I slapped on this baby. I wish that my pictures could show the depth of this polish and that you could actually see all the different colors in the base. It’s just so complex and I love that it dried to a satiny finish. The formula was also A+.

Just for shiggles, I added a glossy top coat to see what it would look like. Although I like both, I think that I much prefer the original matte finish. Which one do you like best?

Well, I hope you are all doing great and that you’re enjoying your long weekend (if you got one!). It’s ridiculously warm here in Southern California, in the 80’s, so I’m trying not to be upset about it. I know some people would kill for this weather, but for someone who hates the heat, this is pure evil. Anywho, thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Stamping Saturdays – Marc Jacobs Cora

Posted on 6 February, 20166 February, 2016 by Cynthia

You know how every Friday you tell yourself how you’re going to wake up early on Saturday and get done all the stuff on your to do list? But then you end up doing nothing? Well, I accomplished the waking up early part, but I stayed in bed all morning watching youtube videos (damn you Jeffree Star!) and old Mexican soap operas from the 90’s–hello Marimar and Maria la del Barrio. I wish I had been more productive, but at least I managed to get a mani done for today’s Stamping Saturdays. You will have to excuse my sad nub nails–I cut them way down after the unfortunate breaks last week.

I started with two coats of Marc Jacobs Cora. I bought this polish like a billion years ago and was planning to return it because the brush was super wonky. When you pay Marc Jacobs prices, you don’t want to deal with a crappy brush. Well, I ended up forgetting and now I just told myself it was too late to return it. Despite the brush, I think this is a nice polish. It looked much more interesting in the bottle, but I don’t think it’s like OMGILOVEIT pretty.

Because of the shimmer in it, I decided to apply a matte top coat. I used my favorite OPI matte top coat, but I think it has seen better days. It’s starting to get super goopy and it started to leave white flecks on my polish. Fortunately I managed to remove the white fleck before they completely dried.

And lastly for my stamping, I used Essie Good As Gold and an image from Born Pretty Plate BP-L004. Overall, I am happy with the way this mani turned out.

Well, what have you been up to this lovely Saturday? Since I’ve been so lazy today, I am going to have a shit ton of stuff to do tomorrow. Hopefully the stores and stuff will be empty because of the superbowl so I can get my errands done. Well, I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

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Bear Pawlish Mulbearry Lane

Posted on 2 February, 20161 February, 2016 by Cynthia

I don’t think I will ever get tired of holographic polish. There are times when I think I might be sick of it because how many holo polishes does a girl really need? (The answers is ALL OF THEM, by the way.) Then I see one more shiny rainbowy pretty thing and I forget my momentary insanity. Today I have a gorgeous holo polish that was given to me by Frosso because she just loves me that much. I have to admit that this is my very first Bear Pawlish and now I know that it won’t be my last. Let me show you the gorgeous shade which is Bear Pawlish Mulbearry Lane.

This is what the polish looks like under regular indoor lighting. It’s a saturated berry polish with a fantastic formula, but just wait for the holo…

And this is what you can expect under LED/sunlight. I want it on my nails every day. I want to stare at it all day…even while I’m driving which is not a good idea. Have you ever distracted yourself with holo nails while you’re driving? There should be a PSA about that. For reals.

So, thank you Frosso for the awesome gift. In a way I hate it because my wallet will eventually suffer, but…it’s only money. Haha! What do you think of this pretty and what other shades from this brand do you recommend? I’m all ears! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

OPI Hello Kitty Collection

Posted on 1 February, 201631 January, 2016 by Cynthia

Hey there! Can you believe it’s February already? What the heck is going on because it feels like time is flying. Well, the one thing I like about February in California is that it actually sorta feels like Winter. I said sorta. Yesterday it was raining and it was windy as hell. While I was out running errands, I accidentally grabbed my car door all weird while I was trying to close it and I broke a nail…the same son of a dick nail that breaks all the time. I had some decent length in my new oval shape as you can see in the pictures below, but since I can’t stand having nails all different shapes and lengths, I just cut them all off down to nubs. I did quite a bit of swatching this weekend so you’ll be seeing this shape for the next couple of weeks until I am able to do some more swatching. One of the collections that I swatched this past weekend is the OPI Hello Kitty Collection. Now, I must admit that I don’t really care about Hello Kitty. I mean, it’s cute and all but it’s not like I am all into it. Because of the cuteness factor and because it’s nail polish, I was pretty excited to get my hands on this collection. Let me show you some swatches first, and then I’ll let you know what I think about this collection.

OPI Let’s Be Friends!

OPI Kitty White

OPI Small+Cute = <3

OPI Charmy & Sugar

OPI Look At My Bow!

OPI Super Cute In Pink

OPI Starry-eyed For Dear Daniel

OPI Spoken From The Heart

OPI 5 Apples Tall

OPI My Pal Joey

OPI My Twin Mimmy

OPI Never Have Too Mani Friends!

Was that pink enough for ya? Well, I can’t say that I was surprised at the amount of pink in this collection and I am definitely not complaining because I LOVE pink nail polish. If you like pink, then you will probably like this collection. If you like Hello Kitty, you will love this collection. If you don’t like either, then don’t even bother…unless you want a super gorgeous blue like My Pal Joey. I do want to tell you that My Pal Joey suffers from the blue pigment curse: it smells like skunk mixed with pot. The yellow and black polishes seem kind of out of place in this collection, don’t you think? My 3 absolute favorites in this collection are: My Pal Joey, Spoken From The Heart and Super Cute In Pink. Spoken From The Heart is like the most gorgeous coral pink ever and Super Cute In Pink was so incredibly flattering on me that I just loved it immediately. Since I’ve seen a few people complain about this, I did want to mention that the handles with the cute Hello Kitty images are just shrink wrap plastic so they tend to come off if you are too rough with the bottles…or if you accidentally get acetone on the plastic…yeah. So overall, I like this cute collection. It’s a must for Hello Kitty lovers, of course, but I can see a lot of these colors being favorites whether you’re into HK or not. This collection is out now and hopefully still on shelves near you. Have you picked up any of these polishes or will you be getting any? Let me know what you think. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!